iPad Shipping Delay Caused by Software, Not Hardware?

In late February, it was rumored that Apple was experiencing production problems that would cause a delayed iPad launch. As per the confirmed date for the iPad, the launch date has actually been pushed back, but the delay may not have been due to hardware.

Today, John Gruber of Daring Fireball claims to have heard from his sources that the iPad shipping delay, which is approximately a week for the USA and a month for Canada, is not because of hardware, as previously rumored, but because Apple was putting final touches on the iPad software.

It was the software, not the hardware, that took a week or two longer to finish than they’d hoped. Nothing extraordinary or unusual, just the usual hard-to-predict timing of turning software that’s almost ready to ship into software that’s ready to ship. In the grand history of major OS release date slips, one week is pretty tame.

If there was to be a delay, it better to be software than hardware, as Apple can more easily fix software.